Basket/Triangles Block

i think this is great! i love baskets. 1/2 sq.triangle are always a problem because of the bias edge. I really dont see anything exceptionally wrong with this block. i think you did a great job! amy in CNY

Hi Bev,

With 85 hits > I've been practicing sewing some triangles and you can see the

gawd, Bev, i gotta go to bed it is 1:20am here. ...but first, had a really good look at your basket block and can not find any chopped off points. try adjusting your glasses. jk. you did a mighty fine job on that block. i reeeeeally love the fabrics you used too. fossil ferns, that border fern fabric and any batiks are particular favs of mine too. ok, i'm outta here. night night all. j.

wrote... I've been practicing sewing some triangles and you can see the resulting 12 1/2" block at:

It is the one called "BasketSmall". It's not perfect (center not square and some points cut off a little), but at least it's done :-). I tried once with a pattern I found on-line, but I could not make it come out right, even after working on it for a couple days. I don't know whether it was me or the pattern :-).

So, I created my own pattern in EQ6 (Electric Quilt version 6). That meant starting all over again because the fabric pieces were all different in size from the first pattern. After another three days, that's what I came up with (I spent one day doing the pattern). EQ provided rotary cutting directions for some, but not all of the patches. Next time I think that I would just use templates for everything, because I think the program fudged a bit for the rotary cutting (or maybe it was just me again?). Or I could have used PP, but I wanted to practice sewing triangles.

At any rate, I thought you might like to see the result. The basket's handle is machine appliqued with some rayon embroidery thread, which I made show on purpose.

Bev in TX

Very pretty, Bev. I love your fabric choices too. If you'd like to be better at chopping off points, I could offer you some guidance. =) Polly

Thanks for everyone's kind words :-).

I think that the cut off points don't show up very well in the picture. The ones that are cut off are the pink points where they meet on the edge of the inner white block. They are just cut off a little bit. The inner white block was not square, but that was no longer noticible when I added the blue triangles.

I usually do piece work on my little Bernina Activa, but it was in the shop getting fixed. So, I did the sewing on my Janome 10001, on which I had previously never done any piecing. I found that if I moved the needle to the right (3.5 -> 4.0), it gave me a good scant 1/4" seam with its 1/4" presser foot.

Bev in TX

I drew the block several times in the hopes that EQ would provide rotary cutting information for all the patches. I then examined some of its baskets, and realized that was probably not possible.

Bev in TX

I'm trying to improve my piecing and try new things, so I'm open to any suggestions :-).

Bev in TX

Bev, that's lovely! I certainly can't tell that the center isn't square or that some points are slightly cut off, and I do love your choice of fabrics. :)

Regarding the color, I had originally planned to use the same pink fabric for both the basket and border. However, I precut the border and it ended up a tad too short after the problem with the inner square. I was using up the remainder of a FQ (I was trying to use up scraps) and I did not have any left over after entirely messing up my first attempt. That's why I ended up using a different pink for the border, and I just happened to have that batik with the ferns (batiks are my favorite fabric).

Bev in TX

I don't see why not. The only piece I can see that wouldn't be rotary cuttable is the handle, and you appliqu=E9d that anyway...

Doc

Looks wonderful to me!!

That's what I call a Happy Mistake! It looks just great.

It's very pretty, Bev., whatever imperfections you can see.

If you do decide to make another using templates, may I suggest that you draw your basket block on freezer paper, cut it out very accurately, and then press the freezer paper to the relevant fabrics. The fabric does not have to be cut very accurately just enough to give at least the quarter inch seam. You then sew along the edges of the freezer paper pieces. It makes an easy way of joining triangles, because the bias is held by the FP. You can use each set of pieces three or four times before they stick less well. . In message , " snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com" writes

It's a beautiful block and you did a fine job of sewing and colors. I'm envious because I haven't tried anything that complicaed yet. Congratulations on a job well done! Donna

I'm not that good of a seamstress and I sew rather slowly compare to most folks. Because of that, all of the quilts that I previously made used a horizontal set. I'm in the midst of making a quilt for my DS that uses a diagonal set (it just wouldn't be right without it). Given that this is the first time I was going to use setting triangles, I thought that I'd practice first on a simple table runner using a diagonal set. I had a lot of problems with the setting triangles on the table runner. That's why I'm practicing sewing triangles before I do the setting triangles on my DS quilt. I think that I still have a ways to go :-).

Bev in TX

No doubt you are right. I've mostly use EQ for block placement and quilt colors. I've done very little block design and what I did was fairly simple, until this one. I think that I need to work through the manual and books.

Bev in TX

Thanks for the great suggestion :-), but I do have a question about it. Last week when I was doing some applique, I ironed a leaf FP shape to my fabric, cut it out (adding a seam allowance). I then decided to not use that leaf, so I removed the FP. When doing so, I found that the FP had stuck rather tightly to the fabric and when I removed it the leaf curled up. I don't know whether that meant that the cloth stretched? If so, is there some easy way in which to remove the FP without stretching the fabric? Or do I need to play around with my iron's settings to determine what would be the best temperature? My old iron did not get hot enough to make the FP stay on very long at all, so I never had to deal with this before.

Bev in TX